Back Story

robert b. parker joe mantegna

Renaissance man Spenser - he of the acerbic social commentary, the gourmet cookery, and the steely abs - turns his considerable talents to the unraveling of a thirty-year-old murder mystery. During a 1974 holdup in a Boston bank by a revolutionary group calling itself the Dread Scott Brigade, Emily Gordon, a visitor cashing traveler's checks, is shot and killed. Despite security-camera photos and a letter from the group claiming responsibility, nobody saw who shot her, and the perpetrators have remained at large for three decades. Enter Paul Giacomin, the closest thing to Spenser's son. When Paul's friend Daryl Gordon, Emily's daughter, decides she needs closure regarding her mother's death, she turns to Spenser, who must reach past the lack of clues and missing FBI report to seek the truth.

Genres mysteryfictiondetectivecrimethrillermystery thrilleraudiobooksuspenseactionadult fiction

0 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1,2003

Series

Spenser

Literary awards

vermont golden dome book award,

This edition

Format: 0 pages, Audio CD
Published: March 18, 2003 by Random House Audio
ISBN: 9780739302590
ASIN: 0739302590
Language: English

Characters More characters

Spenser

Spenser—his first name is never officially revealed—is a fictional private detective in Boston in a series of detective novels initially written by the American mystery writer Robert B. Parker and later by Ace Atkins. He lives in Beacon Hill. He is also f...
Susan Silverman

...
Paul Giacomin

A young man who Spenser and Susan have become close to. Spenser had helped him when dealing with his parents....
Hawk

...
Mark Samuelson

...
Jesse Stone

Chief Stone is a former minor league baseball shortstop whose career was cut short by a shoulder injury. He is sure he could have made the big leagues but for that. Hes been a police detective almost ever since - from the start of the series, now mo...

About the author

robert b. parker

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Robert B. Parker.
Robert Brown Parker was an American writer, primarily of fiction within the mystery/detective genre. His most famous works were the 40 novels written about the fictional private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the mid-1980s; a series of TV movies was also produced based on the character. His works incorporate encyclopedic knowledge of the Boston metropolitan area. The Spenser novels have been cited as reviving and changing the detective genre by critics and bestselling authors including Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, and Dennis Lehane.
Parker also wrote nine novels featuring the fictional character Jesse Stone, a Los Angeles police officer who moves to a small New England town; six novels with the fictional character Sunny Randall, a female private investigator; and four Westerns starring the duo Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. The first was Appaloosa, made into a film starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen.